THE TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME—A

October 19, 2014

THE OLD TESTAMENT

Exodus 33:12-23

            ¹²Moses said to the Lord, “Look, you keep telling me, ‘Bring this people up,’ and you haven’t let me know whom you will send with me; and you keep saying, ‘I know you by name, and you have found favor in my eyes.’

            ¹³“Now, if I really have found favor in your eyes, teach me your ways so that I can know that I really have found favor in your eyes, and show your people, this great nation.”

            ¹⁴He said, “You will go before me and I will give you rest.”

            ¹⁵He said to him, “If you won’t go with us, don’t bring us up from this place.  ¹⁶How can anyone tell that I have found favor in your eyes, I and your people, unless you walk with us?  Isn’t that what makes us different, I and your people from every other people all over the world?”

            ¹⁷The Lord said to Moses, “I will do this thing also, the thing you have asked, because you have found favor in my eyes, and I know you by name.”

            ¹⁸Moses said to him, “Show me your glory.”

            ¹⁹He said, “I will cause all my greatness to cross over before you, and I will proclaim before you my name, ‘The Lord who is gracious to whomever he is gracious and who has compassion on whomever he has compassion.’  ²⁰But you cannot see my face.  No human being can see my face and live.”

            ²¹The Lord said, “See, there is a place with me, and I will set you on a rock.  ²²When my glory passes before you, I will put you in a crevice in the rock, and you will stand on that rock.  ²³I will place my hand on you, and you will see my back, but my face cannot be seen.”

THE PSALTER

Psalm 99

^1.          The Lord is king!  Let the peoples tremble!  Enthroned on cherubim!  Let the seas reel!

^2.          The Lord in Zion is great, and he is high above all the peoples.

^3.          Let them thank your name, great and fearful.  Holy is he!

^4.          The strong King loves justice.  You have established the upright ones.

^5.          Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool.  Holy is he!

^6.          Moses and Aaron were among his priests,

                        and Samuel among those who call on his name.

            They would call on the Lord and he would answer them.

^7.          In a pillar of cloud he would speak to them. 

                        They kept his precepts and the statutes he gave them.

^8.          Lord our God, you answered them.

            You were a forgiving God to them, avenging on those who who rose up against them.

^9.          Exalt the Lord our God, and worship toward his holy mountain. 

                        For great is the Lord our God!

THE EPISTLE

I Thessalonians 1

            ¹Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:  grace to y’all and peace.

            ²We always thank God for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers, never failing to ³remember your work of faith and labor of love and endurance of hope on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ before God our Father, ⁴knowing, family loved by God, our election, ⁵that our gospel did not come to you in word alone but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and great undeniable wisdom, just as you know what kind of people we were toward you for your benefit.  ⁶And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, ⁷so that you now are examples to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.  ⁸The word the Lord has gone out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith in God has been heard, so that we don’t need to say a word!  ⁹They themselves tell us what kind of entrance we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, ¹⁰and how made your hearts a home for his heavenly Son, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivered us from the coming wrath.

THE GOSPEL

Matthew 22:15-22

            ¹⁵Then the Pharisees put their heads together and decided to try to trap him in his words.  ¹⁶They sent some of their disciples, with some of the Herodians, to say, “Teacher, we know that you are true and you are teaching the true Word of God and you do not worry about what people think about you.  ¹⁷Tell us what you think:  is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or  not?”

            ¹⁸Jesus recognized their trickery, and said, “Why are trying to trap me, you hypocrites?  ¹⁹Show me the coin you use to pay the tax.”

            ²⁰Then he said to them, “Whose picture is this?  Whose name is engraved on this?”

            ²¹They said, “Caesar’s.”

            Then he said to them, “If it’s Caesar’s, give it to him; and give God what is God’s.”

            ²²They were amazed when they heard that, and they left him alone.

R E L A T I O N S H I P S :     L E A R N I N G   T O   F L Y

A SERMON FOR THE 24^TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME—A

October 19, 2014

by William F. Thomas II

THE SCRIPTURES:  Exodus 33:12-23; Psalm 99; I Thessalonians 1; Matthew 22:15-22

THE MESSAGE:  It is out of our discomforts that we grow.

THE DOCTRINE:  Christian Perfection

THE RESPONSE:  Begin to look for the win/win.

THE SEMINAL OUTLINE:

A.          FIGHTING

N.          FRICTION

S.          FORGIVING

V.          FORWARD!

A.          FAITH

THE RESPONSE:

A.          FIGHTING

              1.         Moses and God?!?

N.          FRICTION

              1.         Too much like us

S.          FORGIVING

              1.         Not a bad thing

              2.         If we both agree on everything

              3.         Teaching eagles to fly

              4.         Show me your glory

V.          FORWARD!

              1.         What if…family

              2.         What if…church

              3.         What if…yourself

A.          FAITH

              1.         What does the cross mean?

              2.         What does your pain mean?

              3.         If it was easy…

R E L A T I O N S H I P S :     L E A R N I N G   T O   F L Y

A SERMON FOR THE 24^TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME—A

October 19, 2014

by William F. Thomas II

            Moses and God had a fight.

            Moses and God disagreed more than once.  But this was their first fight.  After bringing all of the Children of Israel out of Egypt after the Ten Plagues and the Parting of the Red Sea, God revealed himself to them all with a loud, terrifying spectacle:  flames and smoke and the sound of trumpets blaring and his own overwhelming voice:  “I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD.  YOU WILL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME!  YOU WILL NOT MAKE ANY IMAGES OF ANYTHING IN THE EARTH OR IN THE WATER OR IN THE SKY!”  Pretty impressive, right?  Borderline unforgettable!

            Then God called Moses out of town for a few days.  Well, forty.  And the Children of Israel threw a bunch of golden jewelry into a fire and formed it into a golden calf to worship.

            Have you ever had a conversation with your spouse that begins, “Did you see what THAT SON OF YOURS did?”  “Did you hear what THAT DAUGHTER OF YOURS said?”  God said to Moses, “Hey, Moses, those people YOU BROUGHT UP OUT OF EGYPT…” 

            God wanted to wipe ‘em all out.  And after a while Moses started to sound like Laura Petrie from the old “Dick van Dyke Show”:  “YOU DON’T LOVE ME ANYMORE!”

            That’s what Moses said!  Well, literally, he said, “You said I have found favor in your sight!  You said you know me by name!”

            “You said you love me!”

            God said, “That’s right, I do.”

            Moses said, “Well, if you really love me, you won’t give up on YOUR people.”

            God said, “Okay, okay, you got it. 

            “But I won’t walk with them!  If I’m with them for more than five minutes I’m liable to lose my temper and somebody’s going to die!”

            “IF YOU REALLY LOVED ME you’d go with us!  You wouldn’t send some angel to lead us!  And if you don’t, just leave us here to die!  If you won’t take them, I’m not going either!”

            Like many a long-suffering spouse (I don’t say long-suffering husband, ladies.  It works both ways, right?)  Like many a long-suffering spouse, God finally said, “Okay, you win.  I really do love you.  We’ll do it your way.”

            Is this making anyone uncomfortable?  I have paraphrased a thing or two, but I have actually told it pretty much the way the Bible tells it.  Look it up.  Exodus 32 and 33.

            “But surely God really wasn’t going to KILL them?  Surely he was just testing Moses, or trying to train Moses, or something, RIGHT?”

            Okay.  The Bible doesn’t say that’s what was in God’s mind.  It doesn’t say it wasn’t on God’s mind.  I could speculate, and MANY people have.  But the Bible doesn’t say more than that.  In fact, a lot of people put a lot of effort into cleaning up the biblical image of God.  It’s like they’re trying to housebreak God, make God somehow more acceptable to our modern tastes and sensibilities.  We have to SPIN God.  We have to PR God.  I mean, we can’t let the biblical account of God stand on its OWN, right?  I mean, it’s hard enough to get people in church as it is without the Bloodthirsty Tyrant of the Old Testament being allowed to testify in his own behalf, right?

            My wife and I celebrated our 25^th wedding anniversary June 10 of this year.  And it hasn’t been easy, every step of the way.  It’s been wonderful, but it hasn’t been easy, not all of it.  I know couples who tell me things like, “We’ve been married 45 years and we’ve never had a fight!”  I smile and say, “That’s wonderful!” but what I’m thinking is, “Yeah, right!  You’re either lying, or you’ve spent a half century in opposite sides of the house never talking to each other!”

            In real relationships, if you spend enough time together, there will be friction.  In fact, I guarantee, if you do it right, after you’ve been married a while, one day you’ll wake up, see the face of your beloved snoozing on the pillow, and you’ll begin to pray this prayer:  “O God!  What have I done?”  Amen?

            When I was in seminary, the mother of a friend gave me a book called Notes on Love and Courage by Hugh Prather.  Some of it I found wonderful, one or two places I found blasphemous.  Some of it made no sense to me at all, but, to my credit, I considered his age (in his 40’s) and mine (mid-20’s), and I decided those parts might make a lot more sense a dozen or so years down the road.

            He talked about his marriage.  He told the story of getting his lovely fiancée into a car, driving across the state line into Oklahoma, and getting married before a justice of the peace.  Then he said if he hadn’t made it expensive, difficult, and publicly humiliating to leave her, he wouldn’t have stayed.  But, he also says, if he hadn’t stayed, he would have missed out not only on the love of his, he would have missed out on some of the most valuable growth experiences of his life.

            Did you ever wake up and realize your spouse has changed overnight?  That, suddenly, things she used to hate she now wants, things he adored yesterday he finds boring today?

            Mr. Prather said at those times, usually he was pretty satisfied with himself.  He didn’t see that he NEEDED to change.

            But she wanted him to.

            And he wanted not just to stay married, but to have the happiest marriage possible.

            And, a little way down the road, he realized that the change he never wanted or even considered had made him a better man, a better husband, a better Christian.

            One of the most influential Christians in my life was fond of saying, “If you and I agree on everything, one of us is unnecessary.”  If you and I agree on everything, neither of us is helping the other grow.  And like all living beings, we exist in one of two states:  we are either growing, or we are dying.  We are either advancing or we are stagnating.  We are either learning, or we are atrophying. 

            We are living beings.  Nations are living beings.  Communities are living beings.

            Churches are living beings.  And if you are Church, you cannot stay still.  Hate change all you want, but change is coming.  You either work to bring about the change of growth, or you sit and watch the change of death.

            How come nobody ever shouts AMEN when I say that?

            We must grow or we die.  And the kind of growth we need NEVER happens by accident.  It is always intentional.  It is always the result of determination and work and listening and talking and disagreeing and coming at last to some kind of consensus.  It cannot be “You listen and I’ll talk” 100% of the time.  It cannot be “You’re always right and I’m always wrong” 100% of the time.  It cannot be “Agree with me or you’re an idiot.”

            Sometimes it’s “I’m wrong and you’re right.”

            Sometimes it’s “Okay, let’s try it your way.”

            It’s hard-fought.

            But if it’s free isn’t it always worth what it costs?  If it’s easy, isn’t it always worth what it costs?

            What in the Bible or in history in your experience gave you any idea this life that God gives us for free would be easy?  When in God’s dealing with his people has he ever been afraid to ask us to do the hard thing?

            But what in life, ultimately, is more cruel and harsh than what you’re stuck with if you take the easy path every time?  I heard a preacher from the Quaker tradition preach decades ago, and he told us, “Taking the path of least resistance makes men and rivers crooked.”  Amen!

            That influential preacher I was quoting earlier used to tell the story of how mama eagles teach eaglets to fly.  He said when it’s time for the eaglets to fly, first mama eagle removes all the soft, comfortable padding from the nest so the little birds are on hard, sharp branches and thorns, and they’re uncomfortable and scared.  If they spoke English (Maybe they speak Eaglish!  Sorry about that)  Anyway, if they spoke English, they’d be crying, “Mommy!  Did I do something wrong?  Mommy!  Are you mad at me?”

            When they’ve come to realize the soft parts of the nest are NEVER coming back, she shows them how long and strong her wings are, and puts her wings down at talon-level, until the first one gets the idea, and climbs on.  She takes off, and shows the little guy how beautiful it is up there, the exhilaration of flying, the wonder.  She brings it back to the nest.  Then she takes it up again.  And again.  Until, finally, one time, she shakes the little guy off and lets it fall.  She catches it.  Then she shakes it off again.  And catches it.  And again, and again, and again until it figures out what its wings are for.

            She does this for each eaglet until it can fly.

            But its career as a flier begins with discomfort.

            From all my experience, from all my study in the Bible and theology and Christian history, I can assure you that God has never picked anybody up, taken them 20,000 feet into the air, and dropped them.  I frankly don’t believe God plans our discomforts, pains, and losses.  They just happen naturally in our world.  But I do believe God whispers in our ears (and it takes a lot of practice to hear it), “I wish you didn’t have to hurt, but since this has happened, may I teach you something?  May I help you grow stronger?  May I show you how to be more like me?”

            Moses and God calmed down a while.  And when the fight was over, what followed is what often follows at the end of, shall we say, a lovers’ quarrel. 

            Moses said, “Show me your glory.”

            That means, “I love you.”

            That means, “I missed you.”

            That means, “Draw me closer.”

            Want to hear something weird?  If I never say, “You’re right and I’m wrong,” I’ll never learn anything.  I’ll never grow.

            What if every time you felt the friction with your spouse, with your child, with your parent, with your friend, you could say, “Thank you, Lord!  I get to grow!”

            What if every time you felt the friction in your church, with your pastor, with your Sunday School class, with your committee, you could say, “Thank you, Lord, I get to grow!”

            What if any time you felt angry or scared or depressed or bored, you could say, “Thank you, Lord, I get to grow!”

            It won’t be easy.  It’s going to take a LOT of practice, and a LOT of work. 

            Do you think it might be worth it?